Kanye West demands wheelchair bound fan to stand up at gig

[Zeppelin]

There are so many musicians/bands/artists who do exactly what Kanye does just as well, if not better than he does. Does anyone care? Not really. They all do their thing, and Kanye does his. He sells himself well enough and has good albums. But if he's a legend, then there are so many other legends out there who are already doing what he's done. They just don't have the insanely massive ego and self-promotion that he does. Minus the fashion thing. I don't give a shit about fashion.

Kanye's good, but he borders on a product at this point. I mean, plenty of artists talk out about various things. I remember a bigger backlash against The Dixie Chicks way back in the day. Kanye's outbursts are funny because he just seems childish about them. It doesn't remind me of a living legend. It just reminds me of a child who wants to speak out in class. Again, you see it differently than I do. But he's just not there for me.

[Len Cnut]

Not one person in this thread thinks he's Jesus or immortal. I doubt many would even throw "genius" around. Definition of straw man.

His influence is all over hip hop. That's undeniable regardless of whether you like him, dislike him, think he's Jesus or think he's the anti-Christ.

Again, how is that a positive?

I'm sorry, but if the measurement for Kanye's genius is only as far as Rolling Stone and Pitchfork go with their reviews, then I'm not interested in hearing about his genius. MBDTF is a good album, but it's also an album that Kanye admits was the product of PR healing and response to public embarrassments. That's not how you describe one of your best albums. That's brutal. If he had said, "Fuck what everyone thinks. Taylor Swift blows, and I'm putting out this album to show them what's up," then, even with that ego, I would have still given him the benefit of the doubt. Unfortunately, that wasn't the case. Hell, even though I like the album, I barely hear about it anymore. It was hailed as the "Sgt. Pepper's of hip-hop" and I never hear anything about it. I still hear more about Sgt. Pepper's, nearly 50 years after its release lol.

I really have yet to see where his "genius" really has shown major influence. Maybe it's because I'm not the biggest hip-hop fan ever, but it should be a little more transparent. People keep spouting how influential the guy is, and while I'm not hating on him, I just don't see it. He does have a presence and he does produce some good music, but that's pretty much where it ends for me. It's fine if others see him as the second coming. But to me, he's a good producer who has made some good albums. Nothing more, nothing less. Nothing really wrong with that either. But people get so hurt in the ass when people think he's less than Jesus. Believe it or not, a lot of people don't think he's immortal.

MBDTF is still mentioned a lot.

Without Kanye, Drake (arguably the biggest star in radio hip hop) might not be around or be as big as he is. Drake cites Kanye's 808s & Heartbreak as one of his biggest influences, and Kanye has produced a couple of his hits. Really, the way autotune is used on 808s wasn't done before and that's close to the way it's still used today. It's hard to find specific musical examples of Kanye's influence because he's his own producer, and he doesn't produce for others that often, and people can't replicate his sound or the way he raps. That being said, when it's announced that he's going to be producing another artists' song, all rap fans get excited for it.

Kanye's influence extends farther than his music and into pop culture and urban culture. There's a reason the Yeezys go for $5000 on Ebay, there's a reason all-red shoes are in style now, there's a reason anything he's seen wearing sells out, honestly a majority of urban fashion trends can be traced back to him. His name is on everyone's mind, even total non rap listeners, through association with Kim or his latest radio freakouts/concert rants (which become memes that everyone knows, "YOU AINT GOT THE ANSWERS", "it aint ralph though", etc).

Kanye is a larger than life figure. He takes publicity and and promotion to new levels. His concept driven concert experiences are like no other, with mountains and jeweled masks and monsters and choreographed orgies. Kanye and Jay Z did [black men] in Paris 11 times in a row for the encore of one show. Only he could do that. Him declaring on live television "George Bush doesn't care about black people" was incredible. No other hip hop artist has a fanbase as diverse, dedicated, and large as he does.

So uh, use of autotune? Chipmunk soul basically? May I point you to a man by the name of RZA? You've said almost nothing about him of substance as an artist to back up these claims of 'genius' and these amazing things he's done as a producer, is it that difficult, what, what has he done musically, why is he deserving of that moniker?

You don't have an answer, do you? No one does, cuz it's a load of bollocks!

[DieselDaisy]

I barely know who he is - is he the one who is humping Beyonce? I could not name a single song by him.

[magisme]

Not one person in this thread thinks he's Jesus or immortal. I doubt many would even throw "genius" around. Definition of straw man.

His influence is all over hip hop. That's undeniable regardless of whether you like him, dislike him, think he's Jesus or think he's the anti-Christ.

Again, how is that a positive?

Wasn't saying it was positive or negative. Was just responding to a post denying his influence and exaggerating his supporters' arguments.

[Len Cnut]

I barely know who he is - is he the one who is humping Beyonce? I could not name a single song by him.

You aint missing much Skip

[magisme]

You don't know shit, Len. He got the asiatic flow mixed with disco.

[Len Cnut]

You don't know shit, Len. He got the asiatic flow mixed with disco.

More like the twine toed clod-hopping electronic whiteboy jive mixed with liberal helping of absolute fuckin' shite

[Zeppelin]

Not one person in this thread thinks he's Jesus or immortal. I doubt many would even throw "genius" around. Definition of straw man.

His influence is all over hip hop. That's undeniable regardless of whether you like him, dislike him, think he's Jesus or think he's the anti-Christ.

Again, how is that a positive?

Wasn't saying it was positive or negative. Was just responding to a post denying his influence and exaggerating his supporters' arguments.

I didn't exaggerate anything. It's pretty obvious, from what I've found, that supporters will go out of their way to prove anyone else wrong if they say he's not a legend. But you're not even calling him a legend, so my points don't really apply to you anyway lol.

Not one person in this thread thinks he's Jesus or immortal. I doubt many would even throw "genius" around. Definition of straw man.

His influence is all over hip hop. That's undeniable regardless of whether you like him, dislike him, think he's Jesus or think he's the anti-Christ.

There are so many influences in hip-hop, it's almost impossible to pinpoint a chunk of them that are directly related to Kanye West. That's how I see it anyway. I seriously have not seen one single argument that proves to me why he's considered the master of his craft yet. No one has the answer, because it doesn't exist yet. He's a good producer with some good albums, with some of them bordering on great. That's music for ya.

[rockerman]

Kanye is a cunt. should have been face kicked and throat punched when he busted up Taylors award.

[Jakey Styley]

Not one person in this thread thinks he's Jesus or immortal. I doubt many would even throw "genius" around. Definition of straw man.

His influence is all over hip hop. That's undeniable regardless of whether you like him, dislike him, think he's Jesus or think he's the anti-Christ.

Again, how is that a positive?

I'm sorry, but if the measurement for Kanye's genius is only as far as Rolling Stone and Pitchfork go with their reviews, then I'm not interested in hearing about his genius. MBDTF is a good album, but it's also an album that Kanye admits was the product of PR healing and response to public embarrassments. That's not how you describe one of your best albums. That's brutal. If he had said, "Fuck what everyone thinks. Taylor Swift blows, and I'm putting out this album to show them what's up," then, even with that ego, I would have still given him the benefit of the doubt. Unfortunately, that wasn't the case. Hell, even though I like the album, I barely hear about it anymore. It was hailed as the "Sgt. Pepper's of hip-hop" and I never hear anything about it. I still hear more about Sgt. Pepper's, nearly 50 years after its release lol.

I really have yet to see where his "genius" really has shown major influence. Maybe it's because I'm not the biggest hip-hop fan ever, but it should be a little more transparent. People keep spouting how influential the guy is, and while I'm not hating on him, I just don't see it. He does have a presence and he does produce some good music, but that's pretty much where it ends for me. It's fine if others see him as the second coming. But to me, he's a good producer who has made some good albums. Nothing more, nothing less. Nothing really wrong with that either. But people get so hurt in the ass when people think he's less than Jesus. Believe it or not, a lot of people don't think he's immortal.

MBDTF is still mentioned a lot.

Without Kanye, Drake (arguably the biggest star in radio hip hop) might not be around or be as big as he is. Drake cites Kanye's 808s & Heartbreak as one of his biggest influences, and Kanye has produced a couple of his hits. Really, the way autotune is used on 808s wasn't done before and that's close to the way it's still used today. It's hard to find specific musical examples of Kanye's influence because he's his own producer, and he doesn't produce for others that often, and people can't replicate his sound or the way he raps. That being said, when it's announced that he's going to be producing another artists' song, all rap fans get excited for it.

Kanye's influence extends farther than his music and into pop culture and urban culture. There's a reason the Yeezys go for $5000 on Ebay, there's a reason all-red shoes are in style now, there's a reason anything he's seen wearing sells out, honestly a majority of urban fashion trends can be traced back to him. His name is on everyone's mind, even total non rap listeners, through association with Kim or his latest radio freakouts/concert rants (which become memes that everyone knows, "YOU AINT GOT THE ANSWERS", "it aint ralph though", etc).

Kanye is a larger than life figure. He takes publicity and and promotion to new levels. His concept driven concert experiences are like no other, with mountains and jeweled masks and monsters and choreographed orgies. Kanye and Jay Z did [black men] in Paris 11 times in a row for the encore of one show. Only he could do that. Him declaring on live television "George Bush doesn't care about black people" was incredible. No other hip hop artist has a fanbase as diverse, dedicated, and large as he does.

So uh, use of autotune? Chipmunk soul basically? May I point you to a man by the name of RZA? You've said almost nothing about him of substance as an artist to back up these claims of 'genius' and these amazing things he's done as a producer, is it that difficult, what, what has he done musically, why is he deserving of that moniker?

You don't have an answer, do you? No one does, cuz it's a load of bollocks!

Chipmunk soul is so, so, soooo far from what I meant by that, there isn't a single occurrence of spedupsoulsamples on 808s (he really only did that on his first two albums, and he perfected it there). I was talking about his use of autotune, like, on himself... It's different from what T-Pain did and different from what Lil Wayne did, and it's pretty similar to the way that autotune is still used today by rising artists as well as current staples. That album seriously did so much for a lot of today's r&b and autotune-based/singingbased hip hop. Ironically it's his least liked album. Not to mention, he had such a big part in cementing Jay Z's legacy with Blueprint.

Really, what do you look for in a hip hop artist anyway? If it's lyricism, Kanye's got plenty of it regardless of whether you've been turned on to it or not (would be happy to send you some stuff). If it's production, Kanye is consistently ranked as a top 5 producer by all accounts. If its diversity, Kanye has completely switched up his style on all 6 of his albums, bar the first two i guess where the only difference is an orchestra. If it's having a personality and style in his music, Kanye's bold lyricism, ego, humor, and adlibs are always coming through in his songs, no one else sounds like him or writes lyrics that sound the way his do.